parking

The parking picture in New York can be as crowded and confusing as Times Square on a matinee day.

With the City Council demanding five-minute grace periods at meters, Mayor Bloomberg calling for everything from high-tech parking gadgets to a ticket amnesty program to sensitivity training for traffic agents, and drivers crying out for relief amid the holiday gridlock, the NYCity News Service examined at the state of parking in the city.

Unlike parking spaces, stories aren’t hard to come by:

•Amnesty Plan Tackles Fine Mess: Mayor Bloomberg wants to raise millions with an amnesty program to forgive parking summonses penalties. But not everybody is ready to write a check.

•Citations With a Smile: Courtesy classes could be on tap for city traffic agents. But ticket writers say it’s motorists who need a lesson in manners.

•Tech Spurs (Parking) Space Race: Imagine getting a text message before your parking meter expires – and then plunking in a few virtual quarters remotely from a cell phone. The technology is out there – but will New York get it anytime soon?

•Merchants Sour on Lollipop Meters: Shopkeepers along Brooklyn’s Myrtle Avenue want the old-school “lollipop meters” to be replaced with Muni Meters so more vehicles can fit on the strip.

Gary Frisch isn’t exactly an outlaw, but he doesn’t want the New York City Department of Finance reading this.

In October 2008, as the 43-year-old South Shore, N.J. resident participated in the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk in Central Park, he was slapped with a $120 parking ticket for blocking a bus zone. Frisch still hasn’t paid the fine – nor does he intend to.

“I was there for a good cause,” said Frisch, a public relations consultant. “If I can get away with not paying, I will. I don’t think they can put a lien on my house or anything.”

Ticket Toll: 30,000 a Day

Parking has long been a problem in the city, where some 30,000 tickets are given out each day. Now Mayor Bloomberg, who made his name as an efficient manager in the business world, wants to create an amnesty program to encourage drivers with outstanding tickets to pay up – to the tune of $700 million.

Other amnesty efforts report success. The town of Brookhaven on Long Island launched an amnesty program in February to close a budget gap of $1 million. So did Albany and Chicago, which raised $7 million dollars in just 10 weeks, after launching an amnesty last December that gave drivers a 50 percent discount on late tickets.

“We consider the campaign to have been a success,” said Ed Walsh, a Chicago Department of Finance spokesman. “Web payments went up 240 percent during the amnesty and a total of 135,000 tickets were paid, significantly higher than was usual for that time frame.”

Funds Needed

In San Francisco, violators who can’t afford to pay their parking tickets can enroll in Project 20, where they work off their fines at community organizations.

In New York, $700 million worth of parking tickets remain unpaid, according to the city Comptroller’s Office. The money that could pay for 7,000 new police officers, says the mayor, or for some social service programs that have been cut in the past year because of budget woes.

Lawrence Berezin, CEO of New York Parking Tickets, a company that helps individuals and companies resolve outstanding tickets, backs an amnesty program.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Berezin said. “Nothing is working so far. Let people stop forward and do the right thing.”

Reluctance to Pay

The number of parking citations has grown in recent years, from 9.5 million in 2005 to 10.6 million this year, according to the city Department of Finance. Even as more tickets are being handed out, less violators are paying them. The implications for violators can be severe – a bench warrant could be issued.

And amnesty or no amnesty, the decision whether to pay often comes down to more than money. When Frisch, received a warning notice in the mail a few months ago, he didn’t even bother opening it. He just ripped up the envelope.

Will he pay if his late fees are forgiven?

“Not a chance,” Frisch said.

Imagine paying a parking meter with a credit card, getting a text message before the time runs out and then re-feeding the meter remotely from a cell phone.

The technology already exists – and Mayor Bloomberg wants New York to become the next city to get it.

“What’s interesting to me is that parking has been a neglected place with regard to technology,” said Ted Russ, chief operating officer of Street Smart Technology, an Atlanta-based wireless tech company that makes so-called smart meters. “Over the next five to 10 years, you’ll see an absolute transformation in how cities manage parking.”

Mobile Monitor

Russ’ computer wizards have designed a system that detects empty spaces – so instead of circling the block, drivers can simply consult their mobile phone.

The vehicle-detection technology, a sensor the size of a hockey puck, is installed into the street or adjacent lampposts. Information is transferred using a low-data-rate wireless network, which monitors the space’s availability and tracks payments.

Russ understands that the parking revolution he and others envision will take time. “As good of an idea as this is, and as obvious as it is…cities move very slowly,” he said.

So far, his company’s parking product is being tested in Atlanta, Houston, Reading, Penn., Pacific Grove, Ca., and Decatur, Ga. Russ said he’d love to tap into the New York market: “We are totally in sync with the mayor’s vision and would love an opportunity to make it possible.”

Big Demand

Wiley Norvell, spokesman for the New York-based Transportation Alternatives, said the city should take advantage of the latest technology to make traffic flow better, cutting congestion.

“Essentially, parking supply and demand do not match up, they don’t even come close,” Norvell said, noting that the last big innovation in parking technology – introduction of the first Muni Meters a decade ago – opened more parking spaces in city streets.

Lyn Meene, assistant city manager of Decatur, said the Smart Meter experiment initially suffered from wireless connection problems that subsequently were resolved. The city is monitoring 54 spaces in Decatur’s busiest districts.

“Like any new technology, we’re still looking to see if this is really what we want to stick with or if there’s something else on the horizon,” she said.

In an op-ed piece written for the New York Daily News in September, Bloomberg acknowledged how difficult parking in the city is and promised technological advances to ease the pain were on the way.

City Hall said the project was still in the early stages.

The Muni Meters already are accepting credit cards and NYC parking cards, a prepaid card that can be used in multi-space Muni Meters and some retro-fitted single-space meters.

But potential parking improvements also are coming from efforts outside the city. The iPhone application, Primo Spot, uses Google maps and parking signs to help drivers find spaces on the street and in garages. The $1.99 app also pinpoints bike racks.

A Popular App

“The whole reason we made this project was because this wasn’t a priority,” said the Primo Spot’s creator, Mike Hill. “We think it’s a really good initiative. It makes us really excited that city hall is making this a priority.”

Primo Spot, which boasts about 5,000 customers, displays cover 60 percent to 75 percent of the city’s parking spots. Hill isn’t worried about competition from the city.

“I think if anything, it legitimizes our idea and shows there’s a demand for it,” he said. “We think it’s a good thing.”

City traffic enforcement agents could soon be serving up parking tickets with a smile.

Mayor Bloomberg wants to increase sensitivity training for the agents, who issue about 30,000 parking violations daily – a paper trail long enough to cross the Brooklyn Bridge five times.

Edge Training Institute of Ohio is one of the companies courting the city for the training contract.  Edge’s Aaron Ziff said his firm looks at the psychology behind stressful situations. Techniques for diffusing a tension include acknowledging a motorist’s anger and frustration, and explaining how a driver could dispute a ticket.

“We give [traffic agents] an awareness about what occurs in the brain and how their behavior affects other people and themselves when they engage in situations,” said Ziff, whose past clients include Starbucks and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.

Etiquette Dispute

James Huntley, president of the union that represents some 3,000 traffic enforcement agents, said it’s drivers who need to learn manners.

“If you go to a bank and don’t qualify for a mortgage loan, you don’t punch the person” working in the bank, Huntley said.

Huntley noted the ticket writers already receive sensitivity training called CPR, which stands for “Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect.” Calmly addressing citizens and walking away from angry drivers are taught.

A traffic enforcement agent, who didn’t want his name used, said an angry driver once attacked him, and he knew of colleagues whose feet were run over by fleeing drivers.

A Bitter Clash

But some motorists charge some traffic enforcement agents are no angels. Days after the mayor proposed more sensitivity training, traffic enforcement agent Twana Chapman allegedly struck Qiang Nian Zhu after he prevented her from scanning his registration sticker by covering it with his hand in Chinatown.

Zhu contends there was a minute left on his Muni Meter ticket and his wife was getting a new one. Witnesses reportedly said Chapman made racially charged remarks. Zhu was arrested for obstructing governmental administration and harassment.

“They need it. They definitely need it, “Julia Kwon, Zhu’s lawyer, said of the proposed training. “If she had gotten the sensitivity training, and heeded it, this situation would never have happened.”

Take Five

It’s unclear how a City Council proposal to give drivers a five-minute grace period after meter expiration will affect relations between motorists and ticket agents. Bloomberg opposes the plan, saying it could lead to more arguments. Edge’s Paul Meshanko said, “If city is look into cutting people some slack that’s a beautiful thing. People aren’t perfect.”

Could less parking tickets be help relations between drivers and agents? That’s not an option said Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorga: “We’re not going to not enforce the law. They’re there to ensure that lanes are not blocked. “